Family Reunion Arc
The Family Reunion Arc is the 14 Arc of The World God Only Knows. It features the heroine Rieko Hinaga. The Arc Family Reunion The chapter begins with the summer in the countryside. An old man, who is revealed to be Denma Katsuragi, tries to create a pot, but failed in the end. He becomes frustrated at his failure and begins to lose heart. Suddenly, he grabs one pot and realized that he has succeeded. His joy is then interrupted by a voice outside, which is revealed that his grandson and his family that came to visit him for the family reunion. He rejoices since Keima has decided to visit him, but was annoyed when he saw Mari, since he doesn't recognize her as a honorable Katsuragi. They then all go inside the house to have a proper meeting. Inside the house, while everyone else comments how long that they haven't seen their family gather all like this, Denma gave a gift to Keima, which is a pot that has Keima's favorite heroine game on, which Keima didn't care much about it. In the afternoon, the Katsuragi's household went visit their ancestor's grave. While everyone is praying, Elsie suddenly heard a voice threaten to cut her head off. But when she turned around towards the voice, it suddenly disappeared. Elsie was confused by what she just heard and asks Keima if he heard anything to which he denied. Mari then teases Elsie that she may have heard a ghost voice, which scared Elsie and annoyed Keima at the same time. After that, Elsie and Keima went to take a walk with each other and comments about how beautiful the countryside is. Suddenly, the same voice appears again but this time, it threatened both Keima and Elsie. When the duo turns around towards the voice, it is revealed that the voice is belonging to a girl and she actually had sung the song to make people play with her. The name of the girl reveal to be Airi as her grandmother told her to go home. As Keima's grandfather greeted Hinaga - Airi's grandmother, Airi suddenly laugh gaudily and threatened to cut Elsie's head again before leaving. As Keima commented how Airi is an eerie singing person, Elsie wondered about the voice she heard before. {C At night, while everyone else is sleeping, Elsie was still awake since she is afraid of all the noise outside. A panicked Elsie wakes her "Nii-sama" up to escort her to the toilet room, which made Keima frustrated and asked her why since she can go by herself. Elsie replied that since the grave is so close to the house and she is scared because a ghost might suddenly appear, to which made Keima in disbelief and asked Elsie if she is really a devil - a type of monster equal to ghost in his eyes. Elsie denied about what he said about devils and replied that devils are actually existing while ghosts are not. When they reached the toilet, Elsie insisted Keima to wait for her outside, to which Keima thinks her actions is very stupid. At the last panel, as Elsie took her "break time", both of them suddenly realised there's a ghost roaming in the backyard and look exactly like "that girl". And Night Once Again Comes In the morning, after Keima's family had all gathered and had eaten breakfast, he starts to insult Elsie. He insulted her because she had been frightened by the ghost yesterday and noticed her shaking in a wrapped futon. He simply stated that she was just imagining, but Elsie denies this. Keima believes that it is preposterous for a demon to be scared of ghosts, as they are both cosidered 'monsters.' Elsie replied that demons are just like humans and that they are scared of the unknown. Keima stated that it might have just been a Spirit, yet Elsie denies this as the sensor did not go off. They both left the scene, as they try to hide the pottery. Elsie said that he should not do that as Denma Katsuragi, his grandfather, had taken a considerable amount of time to make it. Keima said that it is impossible to take it home with him. Keima told Elsie that it is quite valuable but he is leaving it behind because Keima is extremely disturbed by the picture on the pottery. Keima stills decided to proceed with this act. At that moment, they heard eerie things like "play with me...or I'll cut your arms off. The door to the shed closes, and a scary girl comes out. Elsie then rolled herself back into the futon as Keima confirms that the girl is not a ghost and that they had just met her yesterday. With Keima's guard down, the girl snatches the pottery, saying she'll break it if they don't play with her. Airi had managed to make Keima succumb to her wish to play house. Keima stated that he had attracted some trouble and confirms to Elsie that Airi is a normal kid. Keima ended up being the husband while Airi would be the wife. Elsie started watching the play date from the insides of her futon. Initially, it starts off OK with some ragged looking dolls, but thanks to Airi's 'creepy' (on other people's standards) character, after only a few moments, Airi's grandmother, Rieko Hinaga, had to stop her from breaking the pottery. Airi had made a very uncomfortable setting for Keima and yet with all of the eerie atmosphere, she asks him what he wants to do next, and that it was fun. Yet, Keima was getting bored as she noticed. She, once again, attempts to break the pottery with the rock. The scene changes back to Airi's house. Rieko, on his grandfather's behalf, apologizes for Airi's rudeness. She then told Keima that Airi came to stay in Yamaguchi village for the summer with her. However, thanks to Airi saying such eerie things in school, she has no friends. Airi simply states "Everyone... is scared of Airi.". Elsie then apologizes about getting scared in a nervous tone, but Airi said; "I'll cut your head off..." Her eye expression is as if she was angry at Elsie. Once again, Rieko told Airi that all these type of eerie things which she tells to people is the cause of her having no one to play with. She told Airi that friends are a wonderful thing and that she has to make a lot of friends too. Rieko shows Airi her marriage photo with all of her friends, as a response to Airi's question; "Did Baa-chan also have friends?" They now show two pictures, both of Airi, one with Rieko while the other by her self. Keima then started to speculate the reason that the sensor did not go off the night they saw the 'ghost.' This is probably thanks to believing that Airi must have a crevice in her heart, and her attitude reinforces this. The host might have been too far away fro the Sensor to go off meaning that the 'ghost' might actually be a spirit. Keima's reasoning is only a theory as Elsie questioned if the ghost was truly a runaway spirit. Keima then remembers that Rieko told him to treasure the present that was given to him by his grandfather as he had been working on it for a month and that old people treasure their grandchildren as if it is their only true 'joy' in life. She then told Keima and Elsie a good night and they both leave. As night falls, they return back to their house. Mari Katsuragi, their mother, informs them that they would have to stay another night, which scared Elsie almost to death. Elsie gets freaked out for she may see the spirit/ghost yet again. Elsie said that the creepy song that Airi was singing is now stuck in her head. Keima's grandfather told her not to worry as "in this village, they've sung this song since long ago." After Elsie gets teased, it is now nightfall and everyone is in bed. Elsie was still worried and cannot go to sleep. Elsie then spotted the spirit/ghost, which is singing the same eerie song. Keima recognizes the spirit/ghost as the same little girl, confirming that it is not a ghost. Keima asked why no one has come to capture the spirit. Elsie told him that it is because it is in the country-side. Keima's theory is confirmed. Elsie asked him "what is Airi-chan's runaway spirit? Even though we've played with her a lot..." Keima then tells her that they will go to Airi's house, as it is the place where the Ending lies. I Was Not Always Alone Keima and Elsie used the hagoromo to cover themselves while investigating inside Airi's house. Elsie and Keima then had a conversation, when Keima noticed the picture on the altar. At first, he thought the picture only showed one person, but then realised it actually showed two people. Due to this, he realised Airi did not have a Weiss (because she had no worries, thus could not have a gap), but it was her grandmother, Rieko, who had one. Elsie didn't believe at first, because she saw that the "ghost" had a same face as Airi. Keima then corrected her by stating that the "ghost" had the face of Rieko in the past, who's similarity to the current Airi was uncanny. He then ordered Elsie to persuade Rieko's spirit at her house. He then said that he didn't need to capture her this time. Back at the graveyard, the "ghost" reappeared again while calling her friends to come out and play with her. Suddenly, a shadow said to her that no one would come out even if she called for them. The shadow then ask if she was despised. The ghost then showed herself clearly, in the form of a child (who looked like Airi). She then became excited because someone actually came out to play with her. The shadow then revealed himself as Keima. The ghost then introduced Keima with some of her friends, most of whom were under their graves. She then invited Keima to play with her while waiting for the others. Back at the house, Elsie broke in without making a sound and went into the bedroom, where Airi and Rieko were sleeping. Her sensor reacted to Rieko, showing that she held a Weiss. Back to the graveyard, while playing with Keima, the ghost transformed herself to Rieko's young adult form. She then explained to Keima why she had the nickname "fish-eyes". She then insisted Keima to play demon tag with her again. Keima felt a bit annoyed, so he asked her when the others would come out. Rieko fell silent for a little while, then answered that no one else would come. Out of her friends, some had left the village, or were too old, or were under a gravestone. She then said that she felt lonely. Keima then stated the real world was so annoying because he didn't understand anything about living long and feeling lonely. He then showed Rieko his "friends" in his PFP, while wondering what was exciting about the real world. Back at the house, while Keima played with the ghost at the graveyard, Elsie tried to convince the Weiss that Rieko could no longer give birth, thus removing the chance of its revival. After hearing this, the Weiss slowly came out of Rieko's body. Back at the graveyard, the other ghosts came out of their graves to play with Rieko's ghost. Rieko then showed a smile of satisfaction at Keima while holding hands with him. She said that she already had a wonderful life, and ever since she had been born in her village, she had been able to meet her friends, laugh, cry, get married, bear a child, even though there had also been a lot of bad things. Keima suddenly interrupted her, asking her if she created a gap in her heart because she felt lonely. Rieko didn't answers back, but continued her stories. She then realised she might be alone right now, but it didn't mean that she had lived alone. She then transformed herself one last time to her child form and bid her farewell to Keima, before leaving to play with her "friends". The group of ghosts then faded away, leaving Keima behind.T he next morning, Keima and his family bid their goodbyes to his grandpa. Elsie was excited because she had captured a spirit without a fight. She then wondered how Rieko's gap was filled up. Keima denied her question, stating that Rieko's gap was normal and could happen to anyone, but was not easy to fill up. The only way to do it was to accept it and move on. Back to the Airi's house, Airi watched the sky. She suddenly asked if her grandma was happy, because living alone was lonely. Rieko smiled back at her granddaughter, and said that she happy as long as Airi is still with her. They then have a happy conversation.